“Net-Zero Tyranny”

Jim Farley had just returned from China. What the Ford Motor chief executive found during the May visit made him anxious: The local automakers were pulling away in the electric-vehicle race.

In an early-morning call with fellow board member John Thornton, an exasperated Farley unloaded.

The Chinese carmakers are moving at light speed, he told Thornton, a former Goldman Sachs executive who spent years as a senior banker in China. They are using artificial intelligence and other tech in cars that is unlike anything available in the U.S. These Chinese EV makers are using a low-cost supply base to undercut the competition on price, offering slick digital features and aggressively expanding to overseas markets.

“John, this is an existential threat,” Farley said.

He has much more than China to worry about.

Italy is asking the European Union to scrap its internal-combustion vehicle ban, saying it’ll trigger an industry “collapse” if it proceeds as scheduled.

The news was reported by Reuters on Sunday. The 27-nation bloc is scheduled to ban all internal-combustion car sales in 2035. By that date, cars sold within member nations must have no carbon emissions. That means no plug-in hybrids, no hybrids, no gas and no diesel. Electric and hydrogen cars will be the only immediately available options, barring some unforeseen propulsion type.

Northvolt AB will cut a large number of jobs and sell or seek partners for its energy storage and materials businesses as Europe’s leading battery hope aims to survive by refocusing on its struggling first gigafactory in northern Sweden.

Volvo has ditched plans to sell only electric cars by 2030 amid waning demand for battery powered vehicles.

The Swedish carmaker blamed the move on changing market conditions, amid fears many of the public continue to prefer petrol and diesel models.

It comes as major carmakers grapple with slowing demand for electric vehicles because of a lack of affordable models and the slow rollout of charging points needed to support electric vehicles.

Net zero rules and a lack of consumer incentives to buy EVs risk pushing the market to failure

When the Government announced laws forcing carmakers to sell more electric vehicles (EVs), ministers hailed it as a triumph that would put Britain at the vanguard of the clean energy transition.

Eight months later, however, and there are fears these ambitions are making hard contact with reality.

The zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which came into force in January, requires 22pc of new cars sold in the UK to be electric in 2024, rising annually to 80pc by 2030.